Welcome to another fabulous edition of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group first Wednesday of the month. Today as is our tradition we share our hopes, dreams, fears, perceived failures, successes and more with our fellow IWSG members.

Thanks to Ninja Caption Alex Cavanaugh for creating this group and all the wonderful support personal who keep this group alive and well. Be sure to visit this month’s co-hosts as they’ve taken special effort to help us persevere another month in the gallows of author-ship.

As writers, perseverance is a trait we must possess to make sure we reach our writing goals. We must persevere through writer’s block, rejections, self-doubt, fear, loneliness, wandering story lines, cardboard-thin characters, and more.

We must persevere through the doubts of others; friends, well-meaning loved ones, spouses who don’t get this whole “writing thing,” financial issues, agent issues, self-publishing issues, traditional publishing issues, other writers who make it to the promised land (I say, “Good for them! Congratulations!)

We must negotiate the labyrinth of questions which never seem to be answered to the askers satisfaction. “Why don’t you write such and such?” Or, “You know, haiku will never sell.” Or, “My friend just wrote the pulp-fictiony woman’s lit YA novel that’s awesome. You should give it a try.” Or, “I have an idea I should write. I’m sure I could do it. It’s not that hard, really, is it?”

We must survive early morning or late night caffeine overloads, cravings for chocolate in numerous forms, ice cream binges, wine, whining from others, skipped meals to meet a deadline . . . the list goes on and on.

Whether you write to publish, write what you know, or write what is in your heart – regardless of outcome or subject matter, if you are a writer, you must write it. Be damned all things that try to impose themselves on your words. My story will be different than yours and that’s the beauty of our efforts. One isn’t right and the other wrong. It can’t be as your words can only come from you. I, or anyone else, can’t write the words or the story that you have to share. That is your pleasure, your desire, your dream, your success.

And persevere we must, until the last stanza, paragraph, or counted syllable is in place. For writers it is on the printed or electronic page where our legacy shall survive. The world will grieve without knowing why, if we fail to uncover and expose our potential.

Tell us about your own perseverance, things you’ve face and overcome (or not), and what drives you to stay committed to this writing life.

Hi Dean — I’ve survived my 2015 laundry list of horrors and entered 2016 with enthusiasm and determination. So far, all is going well. Yes, we must persevere against all the odds and do the things we want and need to do before it’s too late. And since we never know when “too late” will happen, the “need to do” is right now.

Once I determined I was writing for myself more than any other reason, I found the will to persevere through most silliness, sadness, rejection, etc. It was such a liberating sensation, and I go back to it whenever I feel outmatched or overwhelmed.